Lean Healthcare Method And Dentistry: A Literature Review

This study aimed to carry out a literature review on the lean method, assessing its applicability in dentistry. The research has a bibliographic, descriptive, and retrospective scope. Thus, we selected scientific articles that addressed concepts on the lean method and dentistry. We researched the following databases: Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS), Biblioteca Regional de Medicina (BIREME), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), and Public MEDLINE (PubMed). We included, essentially, articles from the last 35 years (1987-2022) with abstracts (in English or Portuguese) that presented the following terms: “Lean Methodology” and “Health Management and Dentistry.” Worldwide healthcare has experienced an explosion in knowledge, innovation, and the ability to manage formerly fatal conditions. However, it is still far from the expected standard of quality, results, cost, and equity. Lean Methodology has been implemented in clinics, offices, and hospitals to attain improvements in dental and oral health service processes, resulting in significant advances in these, as well as in the quality of care and cost reduction for organizations. The Lean Method can be applied in dentistry since it can act in reducing waste, eliminating redundancies in activities, and increasing the safety of care.